SYLUX: Armour Nightmare, an MP: Hunters fanfic
by hamandbaconsandwich
Summary: Federation sergeant Bronlux thinks he has problems. Things are about to get much worse when he is chosen to test out the mysterious S.Y armour, based off of studies of Samus arans power suit... first story so you know the drill, R&R please. MPH fanfic.
1. Chapter 1

**SYLUX: ARMOR NIGHTMARE**

Chapter one

Galactic federation sergeant Bronlux was bored. Not often was he given the "graveyard shift" on the federation controlled planet zeta 12, but every time was boring as hell. The damn planet was right in the middle of federation controlled space, where no potential invaders could reach them. Bronlux was sitting in the red swivel chair in front of the planetary defense computer, in front of the changing room.

"Yo Bronlux, any invaders?" said private Sinkley, a newbie to the squad.

"First of all, it's 'sergeant' Bronlux and second of all, what do you think?" he retorted.

"I'll tell you what I think, sergeant Bronlux," Sinkley illustrated quote marks with his fingers on the word 'sergeant' "I think that this place is damn boring and we're doing some dead-end job on a dead-end planet that doesn't need this damn dead-end job done anyway. Mind If I play Tetris on the planetary defense computer?"

Bronlux gave Sinkley a fatherly slap on the back of the head. This made a small clank noise as both of their federation issue armours hit together.

"Get back to work, private." Bronlux said mockingly. Bronlux put his feet up, pulled up his visor and opened up a can of some obscure fizzy drink whose name he had never bothered to learn.

It was going to be a long night.

BOOM!

Bronlux awoke with a start. The fizzy drinks can was lying on the ground, empty, its contents spilled out onto the floor. Bronlux scolded himself for being so stupid as to fall asleep on duty. He pulled down his visor and took his feet off the table, wondering what had caused the noise that woke him up. He turned round and looked at the changing room behind him.

Sinkley was slumped against the wall, blood covering the chestplate of his federation-issue armour. He appeared to be impaled on one of the coathangers on the wall. The shockwave from the explosion must have tossed him right on to one of them. _Power guy, _Bronlux thought.

"gaaah!" Bronlux almost jumped out of his suit. Pulling himself together, he realised he had to think quickly. He looked at the planetary defense computer. The screen was black, save for one logo flying about the screen.

_Damn screensaver,_ Bronlux thought. He wiggled the mouse and looked at the screen again. There were 3 space pirate shuttles in orbit round the planet! They were bombarding the small defense base that he was in. again he studied the holo-map in front of him. One of the shots had completely destroyed the infantry quarters. It was highly likely he was the only live federation trooper in the whole base. The ground troops would be landing soon. Clearing his mind and doing his best not to panic, he returned to the defense computer. After scanning the ships to get more details on them, it was revealed to him that the ships were space pirate in origin, and that there was a high amount of nitroceleryne dust on the ships, a dust which was in high supply on the planets moon. _They must have been biding their time there, waiting until the right moment to strike this planet and establish a space pirate base right in the middle of federation territory. They had aimed their weapons for the communications centre first. After this planet they would have moved on to the next. They could have caught this whole sector by surprise._ Bronlux took his federation-issue pistol and flicked off the safety. Could one federation trooper defeat an entire space pirate attack force and in doing so save his entire sector? The odds were stacked against him.

_Odds? I was never much of a mathematician anyway,_ he thought as he sat down in front of the computer.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Bronlux checked every defense system to see what was functioning. All turrets were down, the hanger was destroyed, meaning he couldn't hope to escape or dogfight the enemies. The infantry quarters and communications were down, so obviously no chance of support, and he couldn't hope to defeat all the space pirate ground troops that were about to land AND all the ships.

In short, things looked bleak.

Bronlux flicked up his visor and threw in some chewing gum to calm his nerves. _There must be some kind of weapon the space pirates don't know about here, _he thought. He looked at the history files of the base, hoping for some information. Yes! Years ago, this used to be a research base. He searched the history files for the word "weapon" and only found one item. Many years ago the scientists of the base had been researching a weapon called the "shock cannon", a weapon designed to take energy off of enemy ships and power whatever it was mounted on. They had managed to mount it on a turret but the project had been abandoned because the turret had a tendency to overheat. _Screw that,_ Bronlux thought, _it's the only weapon I got here._ He tapped a few buttons on the computer and managed to get the turret to pop out of a silo it was hidden in and managed to boot it up from the computer. _Alrighty lets see what I can do here._ One of the space pirate shuttles had noticed the turret, and had turned round to face it. If Bronlux could see the space pirate pilots face, it would have been one of puzzlement. This turret looked different than the others, and they had managed to destroy the rest. Bronluxs' fingers continued dancing about the keyboard. He'd have to do this quickly. He pressed enter and the shock cannon began to fire. A bright arc of electricity blasted out of the cannon and into the shuttle. _Yes!_

The shuttle rocked and swayed from side to side as its energy was slowly drained. The turret was gaining power. The shuttle exploded with an ear-shattering roar and remnants of the hulking wreck ploughed into the ground.

There was no time to lose. Bronlux quickly turned the turrets attention onto the second ship and started attacking. Again the arc of lightning blasted from the cannon into the enemy ship, which was charging up its beam cannons at the time. Too late. Again, the shuttle exploded and crashed into the last shuttle just as the turret overheated. Bronlux felt like cheering, but there was not enough time. Space pirate ground troops had obviously landed in the time that the shuttles were hovering above the courtyard, and they needed taking care of. He couldn't fight them all off with his federation issue pistol, and the armoury was at the other side of the base.

_Guess I'll just have to sneak my way there,_ Bronlux thought cheerfully, still happy from his victory, as he strided out the door.


	3. Chapter 3

Sneaking over to the armoury was easier than Bronlux had expected it to be. He didn't even have to crawl through the vents as he expected. He just sauntered his way down.

Problem was, the armoury wasn't there anymore. What was there was a steaming pile of slag, the remains of one of the space pirate ships he himself had destroyed.

_Damn! What the hell can I do now?_

He switched his visor to scan mode to see if he could find anything to help him at all. Part of the cockpit was at his left, nothing else. Still, it was worth checking out. There was still some systems that could function if he jury-rigged them just right and used his pistol as a welder. It only took him 5 minutes and he hooked it up into one of the communications systems in the wall. He typed in the code for federation high command, his fingers shaking with excitement. This ordeal was going to be over! The face of an angry old man popped up on the screen, his face betraying the fact that he believed himself far too old for the job of federation communications officer.

"This is federation high command. Watch'er problem, boy?"

"This is sergeant Bronlux of zeta 12. We're under attack, I'm going to need support, I've the only one left. All the other troopers on this planet are MIA, most likely dead. I've taken down all attacking space pirate ships but ground troops have landed."

The old mans face suddenly melted into one of concern. "I'll search the star system for any nearby bounty hunters in federation service to help you. If not, we'll send some ships, but that could take weeks."

"seems fair."

"ok…" the mans face suddenly turned into a smile. "consider yourself saved, sergeant. There is a bounty hunter in the vicinity. And its our best."

"really? You mean its.."

"-yep. She's already got the message."

Bronlux breathed a huge sigh of relief and turned off the screen. Samus Aran was heading towards the base right now. Suddenly he felt something poking against the back of his helmet. He turned round and found himself staring straight into a space pirates open claws.

"drop your weapons, human." He crawed.


	4. Chapter 4

Bronlux jerked in surprise.

"I SAID DON'T MOVE!" the pirate seemed slightly fearful of him. Was this the one that had single-handedly destroyed all 3 of their ships? And now the hunter was coming? He had overheard it all, and he didn't like it at all. The pirate made an attempt at regaining his confidence.

"if you don't drop that weapon right now these claws will blast that visor of yours into a fine paste."

Bronlux dropped the pistol.

"I want you to call back whoever you just called, and tell them to contact the hunter. Tell them to tell her not to come here."

Bronlux hesitated. Inside his behind his visor a sweat drop trickled down beside his eye.

"I SAID DO IT!" the pirate crawed at him angrily.

Bronlux had to stall him or get rid of him somehow. The idea suddenly came to him. The pirate couldn't kill him, they needed him to cancel Samus' arriving.

"pirate," Bronlux said, "do you know all of the features of a federation helmet?"

"SHUT UP AND CALL THEM BACK NOW!" the pirate shouted again. His nerves were being badly frayed as the conversation went on.

"the helmets have all these handy things like scan visor, armour plating etcetera, but one of the handiest features is-"

"-SHUT UP!"

"-helmet mounted torchlights." Suddenly Bronlux's helmet lights flicked on and 2 blinding lights shone straight into the pirates face. Out of instinct, the pirate started charging up an attack in his claws. Bronlux grabbed the pirates claws and aimed them at its own face.

BLAM!

The pirates own claw lasers blasted off its own head.

Bronlux sighed another sigh of relief. It was all over. Now all he had to do was sit here and wait until Samus arrived to kill all the other space pirates. He picked up his pistol and leaned against the wall of the armoury, waiting in case of attack. The days events had taken their toll on him, and he was beginning to feel sleepy…

He awoke with a gasp and cursed himself for falling asleep again. He kept a watchful eye on the only entrance and exit to the room until he saw a shadow flit past. It easily could have been Samus, but just as easily could have been a space pirate. He hugged the wall and took out his pistol. More shadows danced across the hall outside. All the space pirates in the base must have been outside. Suddenly the shadows stopped and the space pirates started talking in their own language.

A bead of sweat again dripped down Bronluxs' cheek. He nearly yelped in fear when he saw one of the shadows pointing in the direction of the room he was in. this was it, endgame for him. The space pirates flooded into the room.

"drop your weapons, human." Said the leader, sounding almost bored. In truth, he was more disappointed that the plan, that he himself had conceived, hadn't worked out all that well. He had been very proud of it, though most of the other space pirates seemed indifferent to it.

Bronlux dropped the pistol. Funny how he'd shot down 3 space pirate ships and foiled an attempt to take over the entire base without once firing his pistol. But now here he was, surrounded by space pirates, about to die.

"GET DOWN!" one of the space pirates suddenly yelled. He was pointing at something approaching fast from the right. Bronlux didn't even bother looking, he just wanted to take advantage of the confusion and pick up his pistol. He kneeled down and grabbed the handle.

Too late.


	5. Chapter 5

The thing that the pirates were staring at was a missile headed directly towards them.

A missile fired by Samus Aran herself.

By the time Bronlux had picked up his pistol and aimed it at the nearest pirates head the missile exploded, killing all the pirates.

Bronlux lied down on the ground. He also had taken the brunt of the explosion, but his armour had managed to protect him. Still alive as he was, he was fatally wounded. He coughed up some blood into the mask of his visor.

"Help..." he croaked. Then he passed out.

Samus picked him up and carried him over to her Hunter Gunship in the courtyard. She managed to wake Bronlux up.

"The pirates in that room. Was that all of them?"

"Think… so." He said.

"Good. Go back to sleep, good job, soldier." Samus opened up the first-aid kit the ship carried, took off the armour plating on Bronlux's arm and administered some painkillers into his system. She tapped in the coordinates to the nearest hospital and listened as the engines hummed into life and took them to their destination.

"Alright, what's this patient's status?"

"Not good, doctor. Samus Aran dropped him off here earlier today."

"Samus Aran, eh? Wow, wish I could have been there. I hear she-"

"Doctor?"

"Oh yes, the patient. Let's take a look at him then... ooh, that's nasty. Very nasty. 3rd degree burns, multiple fractures.. I don't think he's going to make it."

"Is there not a hope at all, doctor?"

"Well, there is something the boys down at R&D have been cooking up... take him down there immediately."

Bronlux was shown to the scientists down at the R&D section of the hospital. Professor Schmidt and his aide, Daniel Braun, discussed Bronluxs' fate.

"He's definitely not going to make it alright. But we have to try. There's always the S.Y armour..."

"Yes, it's pretty much a mobile life support/combat system. But very experimental…" the aide mused.

"It's this mans only hope. Anyway, he could be very useful to the federation. He took down 3 space pirate ships all on his own. If it wasn't for him quite a few planets could have fallen. And Braun..?"

"Yes?"

"Guess what he did it with."

"What?"

"The shock cannon."

"Wow, that brings back memories.."

"Indeed it does. Begin the operation now."

When Bronlux came to, something weird was going on. His vision had a strange, green tint.

"Sergeant Bronlux! You're awake! That means the experiment was a success!" an unfamiliar voice boomed through a microphone in the room he was in.

"Experiment? What do you mean?" Bronlux's limbs felt heavy as he walked round the room, almost mechanical.

"You were dying, Sergeant Bronlux," the voice echoed sadly. "Your only hope was our prototype of something we've been working on for years, the S.Y armour."

"S.Y armour?"

"Yes, let me explain.. I'm sure you've heard of the bounty hunter, Samus Aran. Of course you have, it's thanks to her that you're here. The federation has been working on a new suit of armour for the past few years, based on schematics, scans and videos of Samus Aran's famous Chozo power suit. Of course this research has been kept strictly secret from Samus herself, as undoubtedly she would probably object. The S.Y armour is incredibly fast, and with a built in life support system. That's how you're breathing right now."

Bronlux looked down at himself. He was, for lack of a better description, blue with green lines going down at random positions.

"The S.Y armour you're wearing has both of Samus' normal weapons, the chargeable power beam and missiles, with an added bonus. Remember the shock cannon you used? It wasn't just canned because of the overheating problem, that was easily fixed. It was canned because we wanted a more personalised version, for arm cannon compatibility. We call it the shock coil. You can change your weapons mentally, try it now."

"Bronlux looked at his right hand. It had been replaced with an arm cannon with a dagger at the end. He tried switching weapons mentally. First of all 2 parts of the dagger split apart and a missile appeared in the middle, spinning as he charged it. Second of all, the green lines on the dagger turned a bluish hue, much like the colour of the armour he was wearing.

"Good job, Bronlux. Now for an empyrical field test. Some targets are going to enter the room and I want you to drain their energy. Do you understand? Now I know you may still be groggy from the drugs, so just nod."

Bronlux nodded.

"Good. Then project Sylux can begin."


	6. Chapter 6

"Like the project name, Bronlux? Obviously it's an amalgamation of you and the armours' names, so I think it would be better if we referred to you as Sylux from now on."

A row of people-shaped targets popped out of slots in the walls, ceiling and floor of the room and started moving about. Sylux used the shock coil on them, and felt more energised as he did so.

"Good going Sylux, now try the other weapons."

Sylux destroyed the rest rather easily.

Schmidt whispered to Braun, "This is going far better than expected. Every test so far has been a success. Prepare for armour/subject bondage. If this works this may be the federation's ticket to victory against the space pirates."

Braun was obviously distressed by this suggestion. "Armour/suit bondage? That hasn't been tested at all and if it doesn't work he won't be able to get out of that suit!"

"He would die anyway, Braun, don't be so naïve. Besides, if it works the suit will connect directly with both his mind AND the ship we have prepared to work in conjunction with the suit, the Delano 7. The possible profit outweighs the possible loss." He turned back to the microphone to speak to Sylux.

"Sylux, we-"

"-Wait a minute professor, mind if I ask a few questions while I'm here?" Sylux was looking at himself in the mirror.

"Go ahead," the professor asked suspiciously.

"How can I see through this green slit in my helmet?" he asked.

"Ah, I'm glad you asked that, Sylux. A complex system of mirrors goes from your eyes to that 'green slit' and allows you to see perfectly well. Better, in fact, seeing as how the mirrors are connected directly to your retinas and are image-enhancing. Now Sylux, before we proceed to the next phase of testing, I must warn you. We are going to attempt to bond you straight to your armour, seeing as how you can't take it off anyway because of the life support. This involves quite a bit of pain, but will greatly enhance your speed and strength. Also it will connect your mind to the ship we have prepared for you, the Delano 7. You will be able to control it with your thoughts. Are you ready?"

There was quite a drawn out silence. When Sylux spoke again, there was a nervous edge to his voice, and a slight tinge of suspicion.

"I don't know, professor. I think we should continue testing the other features for a bit first."

The professor was nervous also. "Sylux," he said. "I'm sorry. Our funding to this project might be cut any time soon. It gives me great pain to do this, Sylux… but you have no choice in the matter." He tapped in the buttons required and hung his head in shame.

"Professor?" Sylux was fearful. The professor had sounded sad, almost mournful. "Professor?" this time he shouted. "PROFESSOR!" the intercom came on again, and for a second there was nothing save the crackling of the static and the regretful, slow breathing of the Professor and Braun. Then the voice spoke again over the microphone.

"I'm sorry, Sylux."

Then pain. Immense, incredible pain. Nanobots and tendrils and parts of the armour were drilling their way straight inside his skin! He could feel cold hard steel crawling up his vocal chords, altering his voice. He screamed, and what came out sounded like a dinosaur shriek.

Tendrils of metal were forcing their way into his muscles, strengthening them. Building them up. But the pain that came with it was unbearable, and it wouldn't go away. Nanobots were forcing their way into his brain, filling him with knowledge but pure, unadulterated hatred for those that had done this too him. He fought through the pain, got up off his knees and stood still for a moment, swaying. He dragged himself over to the one-way mirror, behind which Braun and Schmidt watched him.

"Should we run, sir?" Braun asked, clearly worried.

"Don't worry, Braun. That glass isn't glass. It's the toughest Glass-like alloy known to the federation. I can't even remember where it's from, some planet called betamax 15 or something."

"Betamax is a prehistoric recording device," Braun muttered, stepping away from the glass-like alloy. Sylux was thumping it, and it was starting to crack slightly.

"WHAT?" yelled Schmidt. It was getting hard to hear over Sylux's beating of the glass. He was pretending not to be worried.

"I SAID, BETAMAX IS A-" Braun never got to finish his sentence. Sylux's blue and green-metal fist crashed through the alloy, and a shard of it caught Braun right in the head. He was killed immediately. Schmidt ducked down under the table.

"SCHMIDT!" Sylux's call for revenge was an inhuman roar that echoed throughout the room and the corridors beyond. Federation troopers started gathering round the door to the room, waiting for the potential threat to come out. Sylux scanned for Schmidt, found him and picked him up from under the table.

"You did this to me…" he panted. Schmidt was too busy snivelling and crying to speak.

"You turned me into a monster. The pain is gone... but the hatred you filled my mind with remains." It was true. Sylux hated them all. The federation for allowing all this to happen to him, the space pirates…

And Samus Aran.

Her missile had brought him here, and the studies of her power suit had lead to him becoming this, this _monster_.

"Sylux…" the professor had pulled himself together. "Sylux, remember, we saved your life. Return me the favour, please…"

Sylux brought Schmidt's face right up to his.

"I'd rather you have let me die. I am not a hypocrite."

Sylux started charging his power beam, so that the arm cannon and the dagger became red hot with the energy. The last thing Schmidt saw was that arm cannon and dagger, heading straight towards his face.


	7. Chapter 7

The federation troopers outside the room in the hallway were nervous. Well, nervous was an understatement. They were pretty much pissing themselves in fear. Inhuman screams of torture, and more recently a human scream of pain had sounded from the room, but now there was silence. Still, they kept their weapons aimed at the door.

"Ready plasma grenades and inform the front desk of this hospital of the possible situation." Both of these tasks had already been done, the federation sergeant just felt better speaking. BLAM! The door came off its hinges and went straight into the first federation trooper, knocking him into the wall. The other troopers didn't need to be told twice. They immediately opened fire, and for a second laser pistol blasts filled the room they were firing into. They couldn't even see their target, but they just knew something dangerous was going on.

Once the smoke cleared, a blue figure strided forward from the room, unscathed save for a few scuff marks on his blue and green armour. As soon as the troopers saw this frightening figure, they immediately opened fire again, and threw the plasma grenades. The pistol blasts hit the armour, but nothing happened. One plasma grenade exploded at Sylux's feet, but nothing happened. To demonstrate the fruitlessness of the troop's efforts, Sylux even picked up one of the plasma grenades and crunched it in his super-strong hand. The federation troops saw this as a warning and ran off as fast as they could. _I need to get out of here,_ Sylux thought. _The scum, Schmidt and Braun, said I could control my ship, the Delano 7, with my mind. _He tried to contact it, thinking its name as loudly as he could. It was then that he thought that the hanger the Delano 7 was in could be on any floor above or below him, and if the Delano 7 started to head towards him it would probably crash through the floors between him and it. Sylux thought about the deaths this would probably cause for a second, and then he realised he didn't care. The hatred he held for the federation and their supporters still resided within him. Just as Sylux was thinking the Delano 7 wasn't coming he heard a light humming in the distance. It started off quietly and got steadily louder. Another noise was also growing alongside the hum.

It was people screaming.

Soon the floor below him broke open to reveal the Delano 7, a ship which seemed to look like his armour. He grabbed one of the federation troopers that it had accidentally picked up as it went to him and pitched him off the side, then he jumped into the tight cockpit. There were no buttons or steering wheels, so he tried willing the craft to bring up a map of the galaxy. He needed to find a deserted planet, one where he could practice all the abilities of his suit in peace, before launching his one-man campaign against the federation. Suddenly he spotted the perfect planet.

"Ship," he said. "Set a course for Cylosis."

As the Delano 7 flew off into the distance and turned into a bright light against the black sheet of the night sky a man managed to stand up in the wreckage of the room that Sylux had escaped from. The figure plucked a shard of glass from its forehead. It appeared the wound hadn't been as fatal as it looked. The figures name was Braun. He took out a radio, which was completely abuzz with people all over the hospital shouting and asking what all the noise was about.

"This is Daniel Braun... project Sylux is a failure. Professor Schmidt is dead. The armour has been stolen by an unknown assailant."

"What about your test subject?"

"Sergeant Bronlux is… dead. His body was vaporised."

"Very well. He was a brave soldier and a good man. A memorial service must be organised."

"Yes, sir." Braun sighed. None should ever know of the cruelty he and the professor had conducted.


End file.
